The Great Gatsby reactions 2

In The Great Gatsby, Tom Buchanon finally realized that his wife, Daisy is in love with Gatsby. I think the part that I'm at is very full of tension and suspense. I think Gatsby is realizing that he got caught and Daisy is too. I don't think it is fair for Tom to be mad because he was also cheating on Daisy with a woman named Myrtle. I'm very curious as to who Daisy will choose to be with, but think it will be Gatsby because Daisy loves him more than Daisy loves Tom. Nick, Daisy, Gatsby, Jordan, and Tom are going to go to town even though it's really hot. So far I'm interested in the book, but I think I'm losing interest as I read. The scene I'm at right now might change these feelings because it's so full of tension.

The Great Gatsby

For the upcoming book talk, I've chosen to read The Great Gatsby. I chose to read this book because it has received many great reviews and is considered one of the greatest American novels ever written. It also looks really interesting from the cover and the major motion picture has Leonardo Dicaprio in it!! 

As I'm reading, I notice that the author uses a lot of detailed similes that sometimes distract me and make me forget what I'm reading about. They are very descriptive and I really enjoy reading them even if they are distracting. I'm currently at the part where Nick meets Gatsby at one of Gatsby's parties. I really like how well the party scene is described. I can actually almost picture what's happening. Before reading the book, I've heard from my friends that The Great Gatsby is boring, but I think that it's actually a very vivid book that tells an interesting story. Although the story is progressing slowly, I think that it's good so far!

TEOGRITMM and The Capulets

Tillie Hunsdorfer and Juliet Capulet both are teenage girls living with drama filled problems and emotionally unstable families. Even though these stories are thousands of years apart, the two girls lead fairly similar lives.

Tillie's mother is really stubborn and selfish. She wants Tillie to obey her rules even though they don't always make sense. Juliet's father is the same way towards Juliet. He wants Juliet to marry Paris even though she doesn't want to. When she tells her father about her feelings he gets furious and yells at her. Mrs.Hunsdorfor yelled at Tillie after the principle called to tell her that Tillie was a top contender for the school science fair.

In both of the stories, there is a nanny in the family. In TEOGOMOTMM, Nanny is an very old unresponsive woman who is staying in the Hunsdorfer's home. She is staying there because Tillie's mother is taking care of her. In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet has a nurse that is like a nanny. She is old and happy. 

These two stories are similar with their large amounts of drama and emotion.

The effect of gamma rays on man in the moon marigolds

The effect of gamma rays on man in the moon marigolds (TEOGRITMM) is a famous play written by Paul Zindel about a girl named Tillie who lives in a unstable household. In the play Tillie has a passion for science and conducts an experiment on how gamma rays effect marigolds. Her project is so good she got to present it at a science fair. In science class I did a also did a project and got to present it along with the other students to out parents. Like Tillie I also like science and conducting experiments. Tillie is very respectful towards her mother even though her mother is selfish and unfair. My mother isn't selfish or unfair, but I believe I'm respectful towards her. It isn't easy to relate to this play because it is so dramatic and emotional.

Romeo Character Traits

Romeo Montague is a seventeen year old hopeless romantic who falls in love with a thirteen year old girl named Juliet Capulet in the well-known play, Romeo and Juliet. Romeo has the lead male role in the play. He is thin but strong, has green eyes, fair skin and brown hair. According to Juliet, Romeo is handsome. Romeo is very witty and funny and likes to joke around with his friends. He is really poetic and loving towards Juliet and will do anything for her. He is easily influenced, young, ambitious and ignorant. These traits are shown when he wanted to get married to Juliet after the day they met. It was not the wisest decision. He is very young and in love so his decisions are no always thought through.

                In the beginning, Romeo was depressed over his ex-girlfriend Rosaline. They had just broken up and Romeo thought that he would never get over her. He didn't want to talk with anyone and was easily angered. His friends tried to cheer him up by taking him to one of the Capulet's Parties. At the party, he meets Juliet and falls in love all over again. This scene shows how moody he is. That night, he longed to see Juliet again so he snuck out and stood under her balcony late at night. The famous garden scene brings out Romeo’s romantic and rebellious side.

In the end, Romeo felt depressed and still in love. He was desperate to see Juliet all the time and his mind was constantly occupied with thoughts about her. He was also furious at Tybalt for killing his friend Mercutio. He grieved over the loss of Mercutio. In the last act, Romeo becomes depressed and commits suicide because of Juliet’s “death”.

In the beginning he was depressed and in the end he was depressed again. Throughout the story he stayed young and ignorant, he was blinded by love. He stayed romantic and moody throughout the play. He might’ve gotten braver because of love, but not much background was given about his relationship with Rosaline.

Romeo and Juliet

I just recently finished reading through Act 1 of "Romeo and Juliet". Shakespeare's style of writing is sometimes hard to read, but I think there is some hidden humour. The words that make up sentences are rearranged in a different order that makes them more confusing. Another thing I found hard to work with was since "Romeo and Juliet" is written in a script format, there are no emotions behind the dialogue. It's hard to picture what the characters are feeling when you don't understand what they are saying sometimes!

While reading, I realized that Juliet was only 13 years old and her father was talking about how it was time for her to get married to Paris. Since "Romeo and Juliet" is a famous play, I already know the tragic fate of the two lovers. But it really surprised me that Juliet fell in love with Romeo and killed herself over him at the young age of 13! It was probably acceptable to get married at that age back when Shakespeare was alive, but it still surprises me that Juliet was brave enough to kill herself over a boy she just met. 

Romeo seems smart, depressed and very romantic. Throughout the beginning of the play, he is completely heartbroken over his old girlfriend who just broke up with him. When he sees Juliet at the Capulet party, he completely forgets his old girlfriend. He flirts with Juliet a little at the party and shows no sign of remembering his old girlfriend.

"Romeo and Juliet" is a widely known play with a plot that is known by almost everyone. I don't know about the minor details of the plot, but I do know that Romeo and Juliet (spoiler alert!) kill themselves in the end and put a stop to their long time families feud. Act 1 wasn't very exciting, it just have background information about the characters and their role in the play.

The Catcher in the Rye

            The Catcher in the Rye is the only book that I have read with excessive swearing. I don’t really think the swearing was all that necessary, but it was still a really good read. When I heard the name “Catcher in the Rye” for the first time, I thought it sounded like a very professional book about growing up. I thought the book was going to contain tons of big words and hard to understand symbolism. The very first page got rid of that thought. The book had lots of slang and easy to understand motifs and symbols. It was also easy to relate to the main character, Holden, and his thoughts.

           

            A hypocritical situation that I have encountered in my life would be when I was taking a much needed break from homework and decided to watch Cake Boss with my younger brother. He shooed me away and told me to go do my homework when he was also supposed to be doing his homework and not watching Cake Boss on Netflix. When Holden thinks that something is phony, he is saying that it’s fake and hypocritical. The lady in the theater had more feelings towards a movie than her own child. Holden thinks she has a phony personality because she is being mean and a hypocrite. In the beginning of the book, Holden’s teacher, Mr. Spencer, acts worried about Holden’s grades and then proceeds to ridicule him about his school work. Holden thinks that Mr. Spencer is a phony because he acted like he cared about Holden’s grades and future when he probably didn’t.

 

            I think Holden is sometimes depressed, almost always clueless and mostly lonely. Basically everything he sees or does depresses him and he even thought about committing suicide once. When he was in New York, he was constantly alone. He always thought about calling Jane, but he was always too scared. I think Holden is also clueless because he is just a teenager in a big cold, city all by himself. He does not really know what to do with himself because he has lots of money with no one to guide him on how to use it. Instead of feeling liberated or free, he feels depressed and bored.

 

            I think the prostitute, Sunny, is so young that Holden feels that he can’t spend the night with her. I think this symbolizes adolescence. This is because Holden realizes how young she is by the way she talks to him. Also, since Holden is young he gets scared of sleeping with Sunny because they are both so young. Holden wants and tries to act like an adult during this scene, but he’s not. Sometimes kids act like adults to feel grown up and mature. 

A Perfect Day for Bananafish and The Catcher in the Rye

In the short story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”, I found many similarities between the characters in this story and “The Catcher in the Rye”. I suppose these similarities aren’t coincidental because both of them are written by the same author; J.D Salinger. In "A Perfect Day for Bananafish”, there is a girl named Muriel Glass, who I think is much like Holden Caulfield. Muriel is independent and doesn’t like getting smothered with a lot of attention. Holden doesn’t enjoy attention and is independent throughout most of the book. In the book “The Catcher in the Rye”, there is a girl named Sunny who wears a green dress who Holden met in a hotel. In the short story there is also a girl who wears a green dress who Muriel met in a hotel. The last character similarity I saw between the two is between Holden’s mom and Muriel’s mom. Holden’s mom is always worried and paranoid because of her youngest son’s death. Muriel’s mom is worried about Muriel because she is thinks that Muriel’s husband isn’t mentally stable. 

Catcher in the Rye

I think being unique means that you are different from other people. Being unique doesn't mean that you completely stand out from others, I think it means you might have a different personality or look compared to someone else. Being unique is what separates you from other people, it's what makes you special!

I think in order to keep individuality in an adult world you just have to be you. Dress how you want, do the activities that you like, do what makes you happy. As long as you stay true to yourself and don't do what others do because they want you to or you feel left out. Do what makes you happy.

Allies character is similar to my favorite person because they are both understanding and very nice. Allie is described as being really smart and I think that my favorite person is smart and likes to read too. Also, Allie has a good sense of humor and laughs a lot just like my favorite person.

If I were Holden and I just got kicked out of a school like Prencey Prep, I would go to my grandma's house. My grandma is super caring and understanding. She would be disappointed with me but she wouldn't yell or send me away. She would try to make me feel better instead of making me feel bad. Also, my grandma has lots of good food in her house.

Jane is important to Holden because they were in a relationship together for a while. Jane seems like a smart person who likes to learn and try new things. She seems sort of sensitive and bottled up because she wouldn't tell anyone what was going on with her step father. She wouldn't even tell Holden. But besides that she seems nice.

At the end of chapter 12, Holden says "people are always ruining things for you." I don't fully agree with this statement. People only ruin things for you if you let them. I think Holden said this because he was feeling depressed and didn't really want to associate with people who were concerning other things besides him. A time where someone has ruined something for me was when I was going to go shopping with my aunts. My younger brother had found out and wanted to come along. The only problem was that there wasn't enough room in the car for him to come. My younger brother began to cry and we had to cancel the shopping trip.

A Good Man is Hard to Find

Chance and fate played a large role in the short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find. The events occurred in a domino effect. One example of chance in the short story is when the grandmother startled the cat on a car ride, the startled cat jumped and clawed at the driver causing him to roll the car into a ditch. I thought it was ironic how the grandmother dressed properly before setting out on the family trip. She figured that if she were to die in a car crash, the people who would find her body would think of her as a lady. What’s ironic is that she did die, but not from a car crash. This is also an example of fate. Fate happened to be the death of this family.

When the grandmother talks to Sammy at the diner, she tells Sammy he’s a good man because he let two men swindle him. The grandmother thinks that being kind enough to let a person do something that isn’t really right, means that you’re a good person. I don’t agree with the grandmother’s definition because acting gullible to help someone out when they are doing something bad isn’t good.

An article that discusses A Good Man is Hard to Find, states that the grandmother is vain and selfish until the last moment before her death. Before she was shot to death, she reached out to try and comfort and touch her killer thinking that he was about to cry. The touch surprised her killer and he shot her. The grandmother showed an act of grace in her last moment.